Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1887-06-09
A TORN BANK-NOTE.
Twenty Dollars Worth of Paris
ian Red Tape.

In one of Miss Susan Hale's recent
letters from France she describes lit
tie adventure with La Banque de la
France, that great fountain head from
which flow all the bank notes of that
country; as Baedeker says, lone of the
very first establishments of credit for
the entire world" She says:
You may wonder why the necessities
of nv simple letter of credit should
have brought me in contact with so
stupcndous machine. but YOU will
see in the course of this little tale of
French red tape. Ii all came about
from the want of R pocket.
took my handbag with me when l
went to Perier's freres to draw some
money. not dreaming. of course, of the
Bank of France. They gave me some
gold and some hundred-franc notes.
French notes are not like ours. but
larger. and squares. made of tlimsy
white paper, ragged around the edges,
with agriculture and navigation in
pale blue ink. holding their imple-
ments in weary attitude in front of
blueso of fireplace, beneath the sig
natures the principal cashier and the
secretary general. Each bill has some
number in each of its four corners. i
never should have noticed these things
but for my adventure. A primrose by the
river was nothing more than yellow
primrose. and a bank note in Paris was
nothing more than warrant of GER
tain amount of enjoyment at the Bon
Marche. or at Voisin's.
l folded my notes lengthwise and
crosswise. and dropped them. rather
loosely. l confess. into the bag. There
were other things rhere-my notebook.
pocket-handkerchief. and great many
big sous. which are nuisance. being
heavy and always out of the way when
wanted in a hurry. l had a long course
that day. in and ont of cabs and shops.
including half an hour at the water
color exhibition. and several visits
with afternoon tea). during which l
rummased good deal in the bag to
fish up sous of pour boires. Now do
not hastily suppose lost the bank
notes l was tired when we reached
home after dinner: but took out the
money. put it in a secret place and
locked it up.
But when. next morning. sat down
to my accounts and took ont my bank
notes. one of them was torn-shock-
ingly torn. with a great piece gone
out of it. ran to the bag. and there
found a very small piece which had
"cert" on ii, but the rest of the
corner was missing. l remembered
shaking the bag out over the fire. and
that small bits of paper fell out. /
stuck on the piece that said ''cent"
and then regarded the torn note with
great anguish. Twenty dollars is too
much to lose anywhere and one hundred
francs seemed even more important.
Although was afraid that / might be
east into prison if the authorities should
find ont that had burned up a piece
of billet de banquc, resolved to reveal
my crime to the landlady of our hotel.
In fear and trem bling put the mat
ter before her: and watched her count
enance rs l showed her the torn bill.
She had good. comfortable, rudy
complexion; fancied it turned pale
when she saw the very big hole in the
corner. However. she said. cheerfully:
''Ce NEST rien. mademoiselle, and
took it herself to consult the learned.
Invent about my business with what
-cheerfulness could command. Losing
money tends to extravaganza in my ex-
perience. You think Of all the things